Conventional physics has yet to make a definitive declaration as to whether the neutrino is EM wave or a particle with mass. But, evidence is mounting that the neutrino has an extremely small amount of mass.

The supernova explosion in 1987 in the Magellenic Cloud produced a light burst, and a burst of neutrinos. The neutrino burst was detected about 20 seconds after the light burst. Thus, a particle with a very small rest mass has been hypothesized. If it has a rest mass, then it is not a photon, which is a purely electromagnetic disturbance. The neutrino has a fermionic ½ integer spin, and all other photons have the bosonic integer spin.

When a neutron decays, it emits a proton, electron, and a neutrino. The standard model hypothesizes the internal structure of the neutron as a complex mixture of quarks and gluons in a dynamic mix of exchange.

But, a more simplistic theory of particle physics could model the proton and neutron as composed of electrons and positrons. In such a theory the proton would be composed by a large number of electrons and positrons, with one extra positron. Likewise, the neutron could be modeled as being composed of an equal number of electrons and positrons.

In such a model, the decay equations are balanced by assuming that the energy is lost in the form of an 1) an ejected neutrino, and 2) kinetic energy from the electron. Thus, to balance the energy equation between the neutron and its proton, neutrino, electron, plus kinetic energy, there must be a method of storing the energy of binding inside the neutron.

There are two types of neutrinos and anti-neutrinos, but as stated in the Berkeley Lab Research News, “Neutrinos are produced during nuclear fusion, the reaction that lights the sun and other stars. Their anti-matter counterparts, anti-neutrinos, are created in fission reactions such as those that drive nuclear power plants. As KamLAND experiments previously demonstrated, neutrinos and anti-neutrinos behave in exactly the same way.”

We may conjecture a symmetrical structure difference which distinguishes the neutrino and anti-neutrino. We see such matter anti-matter symmetries throughout the Standard Model. In fact, looking for the particle and antiparticle has become the normal method of proposing theory and examining experiments.

Another confusing aspect of the neutrino is that the neutrino experiments appear to indicate that the neutrino can change “flavors” (which are the types of neutrinos) between the electron, mu, and tau neutrino. This theoretical flavor change has been called “oscillation”, and is taken to indicate that the neutron has a mass.

An argument that puts this theory in question is the fact that the energy content of these 3 types of neutrinos varies by 7 orders of magnitude. Thus, a conservation of energy argument makes the idea of their transformation or oscillation between “flavors” seem unlikely . Oscillation between flavors without some corresponding absorption of energy as they oscillate appears to be a gross violation of the conservation of energy.